Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Walmart Neighborhood Market to Shutter Sandy Plains Village Store

The Walmart Neighborhood Market in Sandy Springs Village
Market to close after less than four years in business

The Walmart Neighborhood Market on Highway 92, just west of the Roswell city limits, is scheduled to close April 7th after less than four years in business.  The market, which co-anchored the Sandy Plains Village shopping center, is located at the intersection of Highway 92 (Woodstock Road), Mabry Road and Sandy Plains Road in Cobb County.  The approximately 60,000 square foot store opened in early November 2013 in place of a former Kroger store.  A 12 screen Movie Tavern is the center's other co-anchor and opened in December 2013 in place of a former Stein Mart.  

This marks the second Walmart Neighborhood Market store to close in the area in just the last 60 days.  The Walmart Neighborhood Market in the Bellemeade shopping center on Powder Springs Road in Marietta closed in February.  The store, which replaced what had most recently been a Food Depot grocery store, opened January 16, 2013.  The Powder Springs Road store was about 41,400 square feet and more in line with the size of a typical Walmart Neighborhood Market store.  

Less than two miles from the soon to close Neighborhood Market store, Target continues to operate a SuperTarget store with grocery offerings.  Target closed their "Roswell East" SuperTarget store on Holcomb Bridge Road this past January.  

Walmart continues to operate a number of other Neighborhood Market stores in the area including locations in the Olde Mill Shopping Center at Roswell and Old Canton Roads and also in the Blackwell Square Shopping Center at Canton and Blackwell Roads, both in East Cobb.  

Last year, Walmart closed a total of 154 stores domestically including all 102 of its "Walmart Express" concept stores and 23 Walmart Neighborhood Market stores.  The company has yet to make a formal announcement that I'm aware of about 2017 closures but  in addition to the Marietta store, Walmart also closed locations in Charlotte, Chicago, Tampa Bay and Denver earlier this year.  A second Denver area location is slated to close April 7th.  

Are you surprised by the upcoming closing of this Walmart Neighborhood Market?  What would you like to see open in place of this Walmart Neighborhood Market?  Do you think Walmart could improve their Neighborhood Market concept or is it as good as it's gonna get?

Please share your thoughts below.  

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Location is definitely a key factor, especially being in a grocery store desert. The two in my part of Gwinnett, Lawrenceville / 29 & Snellville / 78, do a great business with commuters from work to home. I personally don't shop there but know plenty that do.

Anonymous said...

It's too bad really. The store never understood its customer base. It's a relatively affluent area, but those same customers who buy high-end deli meats (something this store offered minimally) and other expensive items, also like to buy in bulk.

We have large families and we're very busy. This is a mixture Walmart just never got right. Unfortunately, the horribly overpriced Publix gets it and they've take over the area.

Anonymous said...

I live near that Walmart Neighborhood Market, and I've been there a few times.

On the positive, it was a good, "emergency" supermarket to run into if you had to get something in off-hours. When I worked a late shift that had me head home at midnight/1am, I could run in this store to pick up an item that my family needed in the morning.

On the other hand, the store, as a whole, just seemed lifeless. There never seemed to be anyone you could find to help you. Certain departments didn't have as many options as Publix or Kroger (especially fruits/veggies and deli). It just came off as a supermarket you ran into in an emergency, not one you'd write a detailed shopping list for (and, to be, honest, there's a renovated QT across Mabry Road where you can get those same "emergency" items).

There's a Publix essentially across the street from this Walmart. The Publix isn't as "modern-looking" as nearby stores (I prefer the ones at Roswell Town Center and Crabapple), but it has the items I'm looking for, plus friendly staff who will help you without issue. I feel welcome at that Publix. I don't get that feeling at Walmart Neighborhood Market.

vespajet said...

Part of the problem is that Walmart overbuilt in Cobb County. In recent years, they downsized the Walmart on US-41 in Kennesaw, doing away with the Auto Center and the Garden Center and walling up about half of the store. That location is a little under three miles from the Acworth location. This now marks the closure of two of the five Neighborhood Markets they opened in Cobb County. There are a lot of grocery store chains in Cobb County, as besides Walmart, Kroger and Publix, there are seven Food Depot locations that do pretty good business as well.

The Neighborhood Market concept is a good idea, but they just aren't putting all of them in the right locations. If the space has been empty for several years or is where one of the various Halloween popup stores is the regular tenant of the space, that's not a good sign of the potential success of a WMN. I live on the Southside of Atlanta and there aren't any Neighborhood Markets in Metro Atlanta south of I-20. The only Walmart on Tara Blvd.is down in Hampton, so a location say in the area of Tara Blvd. and GA-138 would do decently (Especially with the Kroger at that intersection being a bit long in the tooth and well overdue for a remodel to the current style Kroger uses in their stores and Aldi is hardly a factor in the area.). Publix closed their location in that area several years ago (That store never did much business anyway because of the difficulty getting out of that shopping center.), and the nearest Walmart locations are several miles away, making the area an ideal spot for a Neighborhood Market to fill the gap.

Anonymous said...

A major issue for that center is the access/traffic flow on Mabry as it intersects Hwy 92. Until the center gets Cobb DOT to address it, nothing will succeed there.

Anonymous said...

I'm not surprised at all. Its convenient since i live nearby however, the employees (when you can find one)are rude, and the produce goes bad a day after you buy it. My daughter got sick after eating yogurt we bought the same day. We noticed it expired a couple days prior. We brought it to their attention and their response was "you should have checked the dates." Yes, we should have double checked to make sure their employees were doing their jobs and rotating stock however this is not the answer you should get from someone in customer service. I hate to see stores go empty, but in this case, they did it to themselves.

Kelley said...

The access to that shopping center is terrible for one. The biggest thing to me is the Walmart Market model just never felt right. It looks like a giant warehouse, nothing makes much sense in terms of layout either. Had they done this idea but changed the design, look and feel it may have been successful. It simply was drab and industrial looking and I think people will pay more in this area for a better shopping environment.

Anonymous said...

Same concept as Tesco tried and failed at. The only folks that get this neighborhood market thing are QT.
Love the comment about not being able to find anyone in a Wal-Mart, I went into Chamblee Wal-Mart about 730am this week grabbed $300 worth of stuff but left after I couldn't find anyone to check me out. Wal-Mart succeeded despite how bad it is.

ImAndy said...

Unless they got a heck of a deal on the lease I predict the Dunwoody neighborhood market is next to close. Hardly every any traffic, very poorly managed. No leadership at all just employees lounging around all the time and its always about 74 degrees summer and winter. They havent never figured out the HVAC in the 3 years its been open. I'll go in there for emergency stops but never regular groceries and I've noticed it is definately not a Dunwoody demographic mostly a large immigrant population from Doraville demo.

Anonymous said...

SPROUTS or a good, fresh produce and food store like Trader Joes or Anything other than ANOTHER furniture store!

Anonymous said...

the Winter Village WM is very close to Dunwoody--but not in Dunwoody. I've stopped in a time or two out of convenience, but it never really wowed me or anything. Upper-middle class residents nearby are probably more apt to go to the Jett Ferry Kroger or Publix at P'tree Parkway.

~mindspringyahoo

Anonymous said...

My dog is very excited. He used to spend an hour every night chasing tennis balls in the parking lot after the Kroger closed.

Mkelly said...

I would love to see Kroger take that space back and the now available old blockbuster space to make a good grocery store. Public is over priced and I've more than once got bad meat there. Fresh market is great but really over priced and they don't have the basics. Target was a good grocery but have lost selection and pricing has gone to high also.

ImAndy said...

I meant to say 64 degrees above not 74 its always freezing cold in that store. We were just talking about that a few weeks ago at the office how nobody shopped there unless it was winter and they had a coat with them.

Anyway that walmart is entirely in Dunwoody as well. Its one of only 3 or 4 properties in Dunwoody that is actually in Gwinnett County not Dekalb. I am very familiar with the boundries in that area as I was on a citizens committe of Dunwoody, Doraville, Gwinnett and Peachtree Corners on the Winters Chapel streetscaping project 6 years ago (that they have only recently started)

There is a GIS Map on their website you can see for yourself :-)

Anonymous said...

I actually think the Dunwoody neighborhood market does fine but I totally agree it's customer base is the apartments that run down winters chapel to doraville and commuters who use winters chapel as a cut through and stop in for an emergency item or 2. The few times I've been in there it seems just as busy as the publix at spalding and Holcomb bridge which is to say "busy enough to stay open"

Anonymous said...

Hmm, google maps definitely shows it outside of the highlighted area if one googles 'Dunwoody, GA'. Granted, google sometimes needs correcting.

~mindspringyahoo

Anonymous said...

The Chamblee Walmart is awful. They don't care because they have a good location. I hope the Whole Foods and the new tenants at all the upcoming expensive apartments brings a change to that Walmart.

Anonymous said...

It's a shame to see this WM close. Sadly, i didn't use it enough, ,but mainly because I would travel to Johnson Ferry and hit the WM followed by Kroger next door. I would go to the WM NM at mabry when I didn't need specific things from Kroger.

Sadly, in the few years it's been there, the service inside was quite poor and i rarely saw many people shopping. The deli was awful and that was one place I needed more options and service. They had half the variety of most stores and you were lucky to find someone there to help.

It was during superbowl weekend that I knew they were in trouble when I was getting my meats and the clerk said they had had no orders for their party subs and had loaded up expecting a rush.

Maybe Kroger will come back into the shopping center. There's a hole in the area that is missing a Kroger and Publix needs some competition.

Inside Peachtree Corners said...

The Dunwoody Walmart has the building in Peachtree Corners and the parking lot in Dunwoody. Thus the confusion.

Anonymous said...

A lot of people won't buy groceries at Wal Mart. The produce and meat go bad very quickly. I have seen yogurt expired by weeks at this WM NM location. So, in my opinion, their demise is their poor product quality and lack of customer service.

I'd like to see a bowling ally, indoor laser tag, or something along that line go in this space.

Anonymous said...

Goodbye Walmart! I would love a sprouts or trader Joe's to replace.

Anonymous said...

I want a Whole foods with a fully stocked hot bar.

Unknown said...

Whole Foods would be awesome! I just hope the area doesn't stay vacant for long.

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